


heaven is a place on earth with you

by ourlovelybones



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M, Romance, The Death Cure Spoilers, crying because of the death cure, post tdc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 12:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13501446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourlovelybones/pseuds/ourlovelybones
Summary: Thomas doesn’t remember any of this, but he remembers Teresa. He remembers looking into her beautiful blue eyes, remembers hearing her heart thumping against her chest.He looks deeply into Newt’s brown eyes, as if he could possibly find the answer there. Newt stares back at him sadly, with glowing skin and bright hair.“The in-between?” Thomas repeats. “That’s how you’re here?”“I’m here because I want to be with you.” Newt says simply. Maybe he doesn’t realize the kind of effect he has on Thomas, the shudder that runs down his spine at those few words. His heart flutters and momentarily, he couldn’t care less where they are.As long as they’re together.{alternate ending for the death cure} {heavy newtmas}





	heaven is a place on earth with you

_ It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you _

_ Everything I do _

_ I tell you all the time _

_ Heaven is a place on earth with you _

_ Tell me all the things you want to do _

 

_ “Tommy.” _

Thomas’s eyes blink once, blink twice, blink three times. A harsh source of light is pouring in from outside of his tent. His cuts and bruises are healing into faded scars on his arms. 

As he begins to sit up, he can comprehend that he is lying on a bed of some sorts inside of the tent. He rubs his eyes, trying to gather his bearings.

“Tommy -”

He jumps at the sound of Newt’s voice. The blond is sitting next to him, with his hands running through Thomas’s hair. His nails softly drag over the skin on Thomas’s forehead and he can already feel himself being lulled back to sleep. 

“ _ Tommy  _ -”

“Alright, alright, I’m up.” Thomas insists, rubbing his eyes with a loud yawn. “What time is it even, anyways?”

“Time? We don’t need time here.”

Thomas snorts and stretches his arms back. “Oh, we don’t? Then how are we going to -”

Thomas stops in the middle of his sentence. He frowns as he takes in his surroundings, the simple cot he’s sitting on and the smell of the sea wafting in through the tent. After the Scorch, he feels that he’s seen his fair share of sand to last anyone for a lifetime, but this is different. This feels more like paradise.

“How are we going to what, Tommy?”

_ How are we going to what _ ? He’s not even quite sure how he got there. How they both are there, because it’s slowly starting to come back to him.

Newt wasn’t immune.

Newt knew he wasn’t immune, but knew that he needed to save Minho. He put rescuing Minho from WCKD above his own needs for finding a serum that could cure him, if only for a little while. 

Newt asked him to take a necklace from him,  _ please Tommy please. _

Newt tried to put a gun to his own head before Thomas knocked it away. Before Newt had almost completely gone full-crank and had his hands tightly wrapped around Thomas’s throat.

Before Newt had stabbed himself in the chest with his own knife. 

Thomas gasps and jumps up, startling the both of them. Newt’s eyes widen as a curious look crosses over his face. “What’s the matter with you?”

As if  _ Thomas  _ is the one who’s acting weirdly.

“I saw you,” His voice comes out in a breathy whisper. “I saw you die. I wanted nothing more than to save you. I listened to your heart. And I heard it slow down as you stopped breathing. I watched you, Newt. I watched you die.”

Newt looks healthier than he did back then. His hair is bright like the sun again, and his skin isn’t so pale and sunken in around his eyes. There’s more color in his face - you can’t even see his veins.

He smiles sadly, standing up in front of Thomas. “You did save me, Tommy.”

The moment passes and Newt’s smile is wide and cheerful again as he reaches for Thomas’s hand. “Come on, then. Let’s go play in the beach.”

“In the beach?”  _ I watched you, Newt. I watched you die. _

Newt pushes through the flaps of the tent that serve as the doors and pulls Thomas outside. The air is warm and salty, the sun beating down on his face. Indeed, they are on a beach, sand everywhere around them. The water glistens in front of them and Newt’s childishly running towards it with glee.

“Newt! Newt, wait!” 

Newt only stops running when he reaches the edge of the water where the waves meet the sand. He scoops up some in his hands and splashes it over his face. Thomas jogs over to him slowly, mesmerized by the droplets running down his skin.

“It feels nice, Tommy.” Newt says with a devilishly grin. “It feels so bloody nice. We could’ve used some of this back in the Scorch - bloody hell, we could’ve used this back in the Glade!”

_ I listened to your heart. And I heard it slow down as you stopped breathing. _

“A beach?” Thomas clarifies.

Newt’s suddenly leaning very close to him, their faces barely an inch apart. That same wicked gleam is bright in his brown eyes as he leans forward and kisses Thomas senselessly, causing the other boy to forget his name all over again. “Happiness.”

 

I.

 

Newt’s fairly cryptic about  _ where  _ exactly they are.

After he’s done with splashing around in the beach, he pulls Thomas back to the tent where there’s mysteriously an extra pair of clothes for both of them and ripe pears ready to eat. Newt chatters away like this is normal - like  _ any  _ of this - is in the slightest bit normal.

“We can build sand castles later.” Newt suggests as they change out of their wet clothes. “We can build some sand castles so tall and so wide that we can play hide and seek in them.”

Thomas averts his eyes when Newt reaches to pull off his shirt, revealing the lower, sculpted skin on his stomach. His body is pale, but not veiny. Not infected. “Newt, where is everyone?”

“Everyone?” Newt repeats. 

Thomas nods and shoves his wet clothes in the same corner of the tent that Newt had thrown his at. “The others. Minho? Frypan? Brenda and Jorge? Gally?”

Newt looks back at his hands, as if to make sure his veins haven’t started protruding again. 

“Where are we?” Thomas tries again.

Newt sighs and sits down on the bed with his hands running through his hair. “You’re in the in-between. Don’t you remember what happened?”

The in-between?

_ I remember watching you die. _

“Teresa helped you get back to the landing area, where the Berg was going to rescue you two.” Newt explains. Thomas sits next to him, trying to put back together the pieces of his own memory. “She was trying to help you get inside.”

“Trying?” Thomas repeats with a heavy heart.

Newt sighs again, a much louder and more defeated sound. “Janson attacked you. He shot his gun at you, but you pushed Teresa out of the way. You had a bullet wound in your stomach. She was trying to help you get inside the Berg, by carrying you to where Brenda and Minho and Frypan were trying to grab you and pull you in. Your wound was getting infected, Tommy. And you hit your head pretty hard when they finally got you inside.”

Thomas doesn’t remember any of this, but he remembers Teresa. He remembers looking into her beautiful blue eyes, remembers hearing her heart thumping against her chest. 

He looks deeply into Newt’s brown eyes, as if he could possibly find the answer there. Newt stares back at him sadly, with glowing skin and bright hair.

“The in-between?” Thomas repeats. “That’s how you’re here?”

“I’m here because I want to be with you.” Newt says simply. Maybe he doesn’t realize the kind of effect he has on Thomas, the shudder that runs down his spine at those few words. His heart flutters and momentarily, he couldn’t care less where they are.

_ As long as they’re together. _

“Come on then.” Newt says, gently reaching for his hand and breaking him out of his reverie. “Aren’t you hungry?”

 

II.

 

Newt’s idea of food comes in the form of coconuts.

Thomas’s arms wrap around his waist as he hoists him, high enough where he can knock at the coconuts with a giant stick. Thomas’s heart keeps fluttering at their proximity to each other, making it hard to focus on not dropping Newt.

“Higher now, Tommy. Just a little bit higher.” Newt urges as he waves the stick around. “We’ve almost got it.”

The milk from the coconuts is sweet, much sweeter than anything he’s had at WCKD headquarters. Thomas wonders what would happen if Frypan were here, and able to whip up one of his famous stews or mouth-watering meals. The sun is high in the sky as they sit back against the sand, watching the waves hit the shore while they drink their coconut milk.

“Do you remember when Frypan made that turkey stew for us a couple months after they took Minho?” Newt asks bluntly. 

They can talk about WCKD taking Minho now because they’ve got him back - or at least, they rescued him. He’s safe with the others now, they’ll bring him back to the Safe Haven.

Thomas slurps at his coconut milk. “Yeah. Yeah, it was really good.”

“Let’s go hunting. We can make our own stew.” Newt suggests and stands up. The coconut that was once in his hands is gone. Suddenly, he’s got a knife in his hands.

Thomas frowns, but quickly stands up as well. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“There’s got to be some turkeys around here, no? We can go find some and make our own turkey stew. I’m sure I can remember how Frypan put it together.”

Newt doesn’t give Thomas time to protest. He grabs Thomas’s hand and his skin is soft as he pulls him back towards the clearing of trees where they had found the coconuts. 

“Newt, this seems like a beach. I don’t think turkeys hang around beaches.” Thomas reasons as they crouch in the woodsy area, keeping an eye out for wildlife.

“Chickens, then?”

“Chickens?”

“Well we’re not going to find any bloody cows for a beef stew.”

“Do you think there any animals around here? It’s a  _ beach _ .”

“It’s whatever we want it to be.” Newt says cryptically. “There are no rules - well, none set by WCKD or society, anyways. We could call this a bloody city if we wanted to! We can say that up is down, that left is right, that blue is red.”

“We’re the only ones here, aren’t we?” Thomas asks him. The sun is shining down on them. If Thomas had to guess, it must be around midday. The sky was perfectly blue, lighter than the color of Teresa’s eyes but a little darker than Minho’s favorite shirt back at the Glade.

Newt grins but his dark eyes look past Thomas, somewhere out on the horizon. “You’re full of questions, you know that? Ever since you were a scared little Greenie running through the Glade.”

Thomas wants to relax beside him, so badly. To stretch his long limbs out in front of him and let the sun warm his skin. Newt looks so peaceful in this position, so beautiful. Except for that scar he still has grazing his upper cheek, everything about him looks at peace. 

They don’t have to run away from any Grievers anymore. There is no Maze in front of them that they have to solve. Everything about this moment should feel as relaxed as Newt looks, but Thomas still can’t help but feel as if he’s missing something.

But for once in his life, he swallows back the questions he so desperately wants to ask. He grins back at Newt and reaches out for his hand this time, clasping their fingers together. “Race you to the shoreline?”

“You’re going to lose, Greenie!”

 

III.

 

Winning and losing is a strange concept in the in-between.

Newt’s leg is miraculously healed here and he can run without limping, just as fast as Thomas. They both make it to the shoreline at the same time, splashing each other mercilessly. The water is cool and refreshing on their skin, even though Thomas’s skin heats up every time Newt leans in and kisses him for no reason. He can’t remember the last time he’s laughed like this, clutching his sides to hold back his cramps.

He can’t even remember the last time he’d laughed so hard he’d felt a cramp. Hell, he can’t even remember the last time he’s laughed. With Newt it comes effortlessly. 

Newt knows all the right things to say that take his mind off of the questions running through his brain. In the in-between, they can do whatever they want. They can kiss each other, touch each other, love each other without any rhyme or reason. They can splash each other and float on their backs, while pointing at all the weird shapes of the clouds in the sky. They can build misshapen sandcastles by the shore. Newt can juggle coconuts once they’re bored and wrinkly from playing in the water. 

Once the sun starts to set behind the horizon, they light a fire by their tent and change out of their wet clothes. Because they’re in the in-between, as Newt explains it, they have nearly everything they need when they need it.

Dry clothes? There’s another two pairs of trousers and tee-shirts in the tent waiting for them when they come out of the water. Food? There’s coconut milk, bananas, apples, and all other kinds of tropical fruits further inside the jungle-woodsy area. Wood for a fire? Newt’s got his hacking shears from the Glade -  _ somehow  _ \- and they can hack away at the endless supply of trees for when they get cold.

“But we shouldn’t really get cold, anyways.” Newt reassures him, sucking on a mango. “It’s whatever we want it to be here.”

Thomas looks at Newt curiously, his silhouette outlined by the dark sky behind him. “How long have you been here?”

Newt briefly glances at him. 

“Because you hadn’t been dead longer than - “

“Why do you want to keep talking about death, Tommy?” Newt interrupts with a sigh. “We still have the rest of the day together. We still have a little bit of time before you have to make your decision.”

“What decision?”

Newt grimaces and puts his heads in his hands. His mango magically disappears.  “I’m sorry.”   
“Why are you sorry?” Thomas sits up. His hand immediately flies up to Newt’s shoulder, supposed to be a gesture of comfort. They were having a nice dinner of mangos by the fire until Thomas opened up his big mouth.

Newt looks at his hand sadly. “Because I don’t want to lose you.”

Winning and losing is a strange concept in the in-between.

 

IV.

 

Newt finally explains everything to him as they lay outside, under the stars. 

They’re side by side with their hands clasped tightly together. Thomas’s head fits perfectly in the crook of Newt’s neck and even though the fire is long gone, he’s never felt so warm and at home before.

He’s not dead, at least not yet. Not in the way that Newt, Teresa, Chuck, Winston, Alby, Ben, Jeff, Zart, Mary, Dr. Paige, and Janson all are. The bullet wound in his stomach has gotten infected. He hit his head very hard when they were hoisting his body up into the vehicle. So he’s not really dead yet, but he’s not exactly alive either.

He has a choice.

He could wake up. Wake up and go back to Minho, Frypan, Brenda and Jorge, and his other friends. He could live out the rest of his life in the Safe Haven among everyone else who’s escaped from WCKD and just wants to be happy. There, he’d be able to eat Frypan’s famous bacon again and taste Gally’s awful, but intoxicating mixed drink. He’d be able to run around with Minho, mess around with Brenda. He had so much left of his life to live and so many options with what to do. Now that he wasn’t under WCKD’s control anymore, he had the world at his hands. He could do and he could be whatever he wanted.

But Newt wouldn’t be there. Newt would never be there again. And he couldn’t do whatever he wanted back in the Safe Haven, because he would never be able to lean over and kiss Newt because he feels like it the way he can right now. Not without Minho threatening to put him in a straitjacket, anyways.

In this in-between world, Thomas could stay with Newt if he chooses to never go back to his friends and to the people who have made themselves his family. They could forget the human construct of time and wealth, and just lay around on the beach all day staring at the sun. Sure, he’d have to eat tropical fruit for the rest of eternity -- but that was just a small sacrifice. 

“Could we see them ever again?” Thomas asks, with his head still cuddled in Newt’s shoulder. “Teresa and Chuck? Winston, Alby, Ben, and all the others?”

Newt’s heart is thumping slowly against his chest, a similar rhythm he remembered hearing in the Glade during the bonfire on his welcome night. The other boy has his eyes focused on the stars.  _ I listened to your heart. _

“I tried looking for them. I looked for them for days.”

Thomas frowns. “But how? You weren’t dead longer than a few hours before Teresa and I defeated Janson and managed to get away.”

“Time is different here, Tommy, remember? It doesn’t really exist.”

Thomas is still having trouble wrapping his head around that.

Newt sighs and sits up, wrapping his arms around his knees. “I looked for them. But until you showed up, I’ve been alone. I was trying to figure out how to get out of here.”

“You’re not anymore?”

Newt shakes his head but doesn’t turn to face Thomas. “I knew I would you follow anywhere, Thomas, from the day you ran straight into the Maze to save your friends. No matter the cost. But now, I think it’s your turn to follow me.”

Thomas sits up next to him, his hand reaching for Newt’s shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Stay with me and we could be together forever.” Newt says, looking him in the eyes. “Just you and me, here in our own private world. We’ll never grow old, we’ll never grow sick of each other, we’ll never be alone. We could try to find the others together when we’re ready. We could watch down on Minho, Frypan, and our friends until we do and make sure that they’re okay. That they’re happy, just like us. Every morning when you wake up, you could be right next to me. And every night before I go to sleep, I could be the last thing you see. Every single day that we could spend together, I will love you that much more.”

Abruptly, Newt pulls away and stands up, unknowingly causing Thomas to fall forwards, having tried to chase after Newt with his lips. “But I don’t want to make you stay when you still have your whole life ahead of you. In the Safe Haven with the others. You still have a future, Tommy, with your friends and your family down there. And I can’t take that away from you.”

Thomas’s heart shatters into a million pieces right then and there. He watches Newt stand in front of him, the light of the stars shining on the outline of his figure, watches him get ready to say goodbye.

Thomas has heard so many goodbyes. Watched so many of his friends draw in their last breaths and blink their eyes for the last time as they say,  _ take care of them, Thomas. Thank you.  _ Every time their hand goes limp in his or he watches the light in their eyes fade for the last time, a piece of his soul crumbles as he realizes just how many of his friends are dying because of him.

He’s gotten them this far. He’s gotten most of them to the Safe Haven.

“You shouldn’t value so little of yourself.” He hears Newt mutter grimly, as if he can overhear Thomas’s thoughts. His back is still facing Thomas. “We all love you - some of us more than others. But none of us - even Gally, Chuck, Winston, Alby, Teresa - none of us regret ever following you. None of us blame you for what happened to us. It was our time. But it doesn’t have to be yours.”

All he ever wanted was more time. More time with Teresa, more time with Brenda, more time to find a cure without sacrificing his friends. More time with Minho, more time with Frypan, more time with Chuck.

He has to make his decision soon, before the sun comes back up again.

“I should go back to them.” Thomas hears the words come out of his mouth. They sound hollow in the night between them. “I should make sure that they’re okay.”

Newt looks disappointed, but he doesn’t look surprised. He tries to muster on a smile and put his best face forward. “Of course. I understand -”

“But I don’t want to.” Thomas says just as quickly before his brain can override his heart. “I want this. I want this forever with you because with you I’m happy and I’ve never been happy before. Not unless I was with you.”

He’s going to miss the hell out of Teresa. He’s going to miss her smile and her humor and her hugs and her passion and her steadfast determination to do the right thing. He’s going to miss her more than he ever thought he would six months ago, when she stood before him during twilight as the WCKD helicopters flew over the Right Arm base and when she betrayed him. But he loves her like she’s his sister, because in many ways she is. He’s going to miss her eyes and her laugh and her bravery and her heart.

He’s going to miss Minho, one of his closest friends and allies throughout everything. His confident and his running companion in dark, abandoned, underground shopping centers as they sprinted away from Cranks and a dead civilization. He’s going to miss Minho calling him an ugly shank, calling him a dumbass, calling him in general. 

He’s going to miss Frypan and the way he could whip up a mean pot of rice and chicken in a matter of minutes. His unwavering optimism and belief in Thomas, even when he didn’t deserve it. He’s going to miss Brenda and her no-bullshit attitude, the curl of her lips as she smirks. Her bold and brash personality, her loyal and loving personality.

God, he’s going to miss his family.

“You can’t reverse this.” Newt says slowly. Thomas can see the smile he’s desperately tries to hide, as he gives him one last chance to change his mind. “Once you’re here, you’re stuck here with me forever.”

Thomas doesn’t even try to hide his. “After everything we’ve been through, we deserve to be happy. Don’t you think?”

“Yes, but -”

“So this is my happy ending. You are my happy ending.” Thomas declares, stepping forward and grabbing Newt’s face, to kiss him with everything he had. 

_ You did save me, Tommy. _

_ And you saved me, Newt. _

 

**Author's Note:**

> im about to go see the death cure for the third time in the morning which is why this is so rushed and hasty bUT IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT ALREADY PLEASE GO FIX THAT RIGHT NOW
> 
> this is just a little 'alternate ending' to hopefully get my creative juices flowing again and to mend some of our broken hearts after the third and final movie. who else is depressed that we are no longer going to have any cast premieres/interviews anymore can we make a therapy group :((((
> 
> hope you guys like this and hope you guys LOVE the movie x can't wait to see it again and hear what you guys think!


End file.
